Photographer Neil van Niekerk has a great blog. If you haven’t checked it out already, you should. It’s a great place to learn about lighting.

One of Neil’s most recents posts is titled “my favorite light modifier” and is basically a long love letter to the Softbox RFi 5′ Octa – a large, octagonal and extremely versatile softbox.

“When I first unfurled that thing in my studio, my reaction was, “holy crap, this is huge!” writes Neil. “My studio is 1000 sq ft, which is large, but you know, that’s also not that large. I was wondering if I should just return this to the camera store, and whether my 3×4 soft box would suffice.

“Then I started using the 5′ Octa softbox, and something clicked for me – one more thing fell into place for me in my understanding of light. My reaction turned from that perplexed, “holy crap!”, into a “holy smackeroni!” when I realized that the 5′ Octa is probably the single most versatile piece of lighting gear in my studio!”